Mini Reviews: Bad Moms (2016), Keanu (2016) & Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

It's a 2016 comedy special here at Mini Reviews today! As much as I love summer comedies, I didn't get the chance to see them all in the cinema and so I've been saving them up for 1 post. Plus, it's nice to remember these kinds of movies before we move into the seriousness that winter cinema brings!

Bad Moms (2016)

Amy (Mila Kunis) is fed up of Moms like Gwendolyn (Christina Applegate), who take control of the PTA, and scrutinise every single bake sale in case heaven forbid, some of the cake is unhealthy or store bought. She has every right to be fed up! The thought of being a Mom in this decade is terrifying. Thankfully, she isn’t alone, and so Amy befriends Carla (the ever-hilarious Kathryn Hahn) and Kiki (Kristen Bell, the sweetest human being on Earth) and the three of them wear the label ‘Bad Mom’ with pride.

Perhaps it was the cinema effect, or the wonderful company (this one Jenna and I saw together) but I was laughing from start to finish for this, it took me by surprise. Sure, you had to wonder where everyone’s kids actually were whilst these Moms were partying, but who cares! The whole cast just looked like they had so much fun making this movie. Plus, it has some of the greatest clips in the credits I’ve ever seen.

Keanu (2016)

How did a movie about a cute little kitten called Keanu slip under my movie radar? In a plot not so different from John Wick (starring Keanu Reeves, geddit?) Rell (Jordan Peele) comes across little Keanu by absolute chance when he is heartbroken from being dumped. He develops an intense love for this kitten but in a case of confused identity, his house gets trashed and Keanu is stolen. Rell teams up with his cousin Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key) to infiltrate a nearby strip club and get the little furball back.

The movie brings nothing new to the comedy genre, and the plot is entirely predictable, but it’s the chemistry between Key & Peele that makes this so funny. Watching them trying to act ‘gangsta’ never got old, and the recurring George Michael theme was great. It even had a sensible, logical ending, which is often lacking with these kinds of movies. Worth a watch for sure.

Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates (2016)

This one came out right around the time of my wedding, and as much as I was looking forward to it, as the day got closer anything wedding related was making me feel ill so it was ages until I eventually saw it. Mike (Adam Devine) and Dave (Zac Efron) are brothers who constantly get each other into trouble, and when their sister’s wedding approaches, they are forced to find ‘nice girls’ to bring as dates. Enter Alice (Anna Kendrick) and Tatiana (Aubrey Plaza) who can’t be further from the description of ‘nice girls’.

A cast as stellar as this should have been a clear winner, but the entire movie was ‘meh’ for me. It had a few solid laughs, a really awkward massage scene, and a boring plot. A huge shame, because I honestly love everyone in that cast list and I had really high hopes. The highlight was when the four got on stage for a musical number, Zac Efron for Pitch Perfect 3 please!

I think this still leaves Ghostbusters (2016) as my favourite comedy of 2016, although I haven't seen them all yet. What about you guys? What's been the funniest for you? Hold up a sec, I just remembered The Nice Guys (2016). That's my favourite!

Mini Reviews: The Driftless Area (2016), Mojave (2016) & Central Intelligence (2016)

As the middle of the year got closer, I was able to catch up on 2016 releases that I'd missed at the cinema. Some were great, others not so, and a select few were just plain 'meh'. I find an odd sense of pleasure writing a review about a movie I hated, but movies that fall into that middle ground are harder to write about, so today I present a Mini Reviews special for those!

The Driftless Area (2016)

What even is this movie?! It felt like it was trying to be two very different things. On one side, it was a dramatic romance, with what I think is a huge plot twist I won’t mention, but it’s so glaringly obvious I’m not even sure if it’s meant to be a twist. On the other side, it’s a thrilling cat and mouse chase, full of danger. The Driftless Area (2016) could have been either of these, and done it reasonably well, but it failed by being both. I watched this solely for the cast, whom I love, but I was left pretty disappointed. I expected more from Anton Yelchin, Zooey Deschanel and Aubrey Plaza, they are some of my favourite faces! An interesting watch, but forgettable.

Mojave (2016)

I spotted Mojave (2016 here in the UK) on a VOD platform, mainly because of the beautiful Oscar Isaac’s face. It was tempting to watch it there and then, but I checked out the plot summary at least before I made up my mind. IMDB describes this as ‘A suicidal artist goes into the desert, where he finds his doppelganger, a homicidal drifter’. Um, what? I spent 50% of the time watching this raging about the fact that Tom (Garrett Hedlund) looks nothing at all like his ‘doppelganger’, until I looked it up and realised the word has two different meanings. The other 50% I was cringing every time Oscar Isaac said the word ‘brother’ in that accent. Ugh.

Central Intelligence (2016)

Comedies are always hit and miss, but I was hoping to enjoy Central Intelligence (2016) more than I did. It was decent, Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart have great chemistry together, but the plot fell a little short. In fact, it felt like the exact same plot from another comedy I can’t recall right now. I’d like to see these guys pair up again, though! It was nice to see some of my other favourite faces, although *spoiler alert* because his reappearance was the plot twist, Aaron Paul saying ‘bitch’ made me laugh and cringe at the same time.

Mini Reviews: High-Rise (2016), Triple 9 (2016) & Dirty Grandpa (2016)

As we approach the middle of the year, all the movies that I missed in January and February are slowly released on DVD and VOD, meaning I can finally catch up and rack up a few more 2016 releases on my 'watched' list. That means, for the first time in forever, one of my Mini Reviews posts has a theme. These three movies were all released in the UK at the start of 2016, and I've caught up!

OH MY GOD WHAT WAS EVEN GOING ON HERE. Seriously. I was so excited for High-Rise (2016) when I first saw the trailers. A suited and booted Tom Hiddleston? I’m in. A weird and quirky plot? Excuse me, I already told you I’m in but now I’m excited. I was gutted I missed this in the cinemas, but now? I’m relieved. This movie was so weird. It was like Snowpiercer but in a high-rise building. Snowpiercer also had a plot! This had so many suit-clad characters I forgot who was who. What made it worse was that the movie starts with the ending, so it’s not like I felt the need to stick with it to find out what even happens. Argh!

I had no intention of seeing Triple 9 (2016) in the cinemas, truth be told, it’s not my kind of movie, but I saw it get a lot of decent reviews, so I made sure I gave it a try once I could. It’s your typical action-heist movie, filled with dirty cops and criminals, and takes a few turns that the veteran action fans probably smelt a mile away, but I really enjoyed it! My fiance (probably husband by the time you read this!) plays a game called Rainbow Six Seige, and I got that vibe from this, so he was kind of bummed that I watched it without him. Still, he gives me this proud kind of look when I start spewing lines about breaching the door and stuff…

I don’t know what made me give Dirty Grandpa (2016) a watch, but sometimes you just need to watch some mindless comedy, you know?! These things are so hit and miss and even though general consensus seems to be that this is one a stinker, it just hit my funny bone in a way that a comedy hasn’t for a long time. Maybe it’s my growing appreciation for Zac Efron, or the shock of such foul words coming from Robert De Niro, but this worked for me. Sure, the plot is tired and has been used time and time again, and yep, 99% of the comedy relies on rude jokes, but what more did you expect? I’m still laughing at the ‘Jenny from the c*ck block’ line, and it’s been weeks.

Review: Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

What would you do if you read this ad in your local paper? “WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid when we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed.” I like to think I’d get in touch, for sure.

Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) is a ‘Dramedy’ based on this classified advert that a man named Kenneth (Mark Duplass) has written. At a magazine publishing company, Jeff (Jake Johnson) proposes to investigate the author of the advert to chase an amusing article for the magazine. One of the interns, Darius (Aubrey Plaza) volunteers to join him, and a second intern, Arnau (Karan Soni) gets dragged along too. The three of them set out on a road trip to a coastal town to research the story.

It is very quickly evident that Jeff actually has a more important reason for taking the job on. It just so happens that his old high school crush Liz (Jenica Bergere) lives in this coastal town, and so he leaves both Darius and Arnau to do the work whilst he gets in contact with Liz to try and rekindle their romance. When that plan fails, Jeff takes Arnau out to make sure he doesn’t waste his youth. I enjoyed their side of the story, but it is secondary compared to that of Darius and Kenneth.

Darius succeeds where Jeff failed in gaining Kenneth’s trust thanks to her aloof yet tenacious attitude. Aubrey Plaza gets to play the sarcastic character she does so well but with a much more serious overtone this time around, which she nailed. She is one talented and awesome lady! I wasn’t expecting the story to take the romantic turn that it did, but it was fascinating to watch Darius and Jeff’s relationship grow.

What I loved most was the question you find yourself asking throughout the entire movie. Can Kenneth really travel back in time? There are no clues (that I noticed) that give any indication either way, but you are definitely left questioning Kenneth’s sanity more than once.

I won’t spoil anything for you, but the ending of Safety Not Guaranteed really got me thinking! At first I was a little disappointed, but the more I questioned it, the more I realised there just wasn’t a better ending. It was actually brilliant!

Highly recommended if you enjoy quirky little movies!

Christmas Cast-a-Thon - Allie's Post

You know, whilst I was dreaming up the post for our Christmas Cast-a-Thon, I actually had no idea what kind of cast I was going to create, or what kind of movie it would end up being. I was more excited to see everyone else’s posts! But it would certainly be rude to not take part in your own blogathon! So here’s what I’ve come up with.

If you'd like to take part, check out the announcement post here.

Christmas is the perfect time to watch cheesy movies without feeling guilty, so that’s exactly what I’m making here. I’m going for typical rom com with a Christmas flavour!

Santa - Benji, Mission Impossible Series (Simon Pegg)

Let’s say the IMF were shut down. When your entire career is a secret, your CV isn’t going to look that great, and so poor Benji is forced to work at a toy megastore as Santa over the Christmas holidays just to pay the rent.

Santa’s Helpers - Olive, Easy A (Emma Stone) & Winston, New Girl (Lamorne Morris)

Just because their job title is ‘Helper’ doesn’t mean they’re actually helpful! Olive is providing all the laughs here with her dry, sarcastic. humour, at the expense of everyone around her. Winston is looking for some extra cash on the side of his cop job, but he’s also Santa’s perfect wingman in his search for true love. Speaking of which…

Parents - Sabrina, The Change-Up (Olivia Wilde) & Owen, Jurassic World (Chris Pratt)

Married life as a legal secretary and a velociraptor handler is busy, and stressful, and that’s what ultimately led to the divorce of Sabrina and Owen. Sob. Luckily, Sabrina’s best friend Olive just so happens to work very closely with an eligible bachelor. See where this is going?

Child - Alexander, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (Ed Oxenbould)

Alexander is having another terrible day it seems. Not only have his parents just finalised their divorce, but he’s being dragged Christmas shopping with his Mum to meet up with his rude Aunt Olive who isn’t even his Aunt, and he’s reached that age where he’s 99.9% certain Santa isn’t real.

Scrooge/Grinch - Dwight, The Office (Rainn Wilson)

Let’s say Dunder Mifflin really did shut down in the end. Things were looking pretty bad, but now Dwight has secured a role as Assistant Store Manager (or should that be Assistant to the Store Manager?) at the city’s biggest toy store. Only thing is, he hates Christmas. The only thing he hates more than Christmas are the company’s new hires, Santa and his Helpers. They spend far too much work time chatting, and Dwight is going to make darn sure all three of them get fired.

Extra Roles:

Grandad - Bryan, The Taken Trilogy (Liam Neeson)

Let’s face it, if you’re going to end up dating the daughter of any Liam Neeson character, especially Bryan Mills, you best make sure you don’t hurt her feelings. Or he’ll find you. And kill you. Wait, no. This is a lighthearted movie! Cool it, Bryan!

Family Pet - Grumpy Cat, Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (Aubrey Plaza)

I’m cheating a little here. Last week I discovered that this movie existed. I scoffed that Grumpy Cat has his (her??) own Christmas movie. Then I noticed Grumpy Cat is voiced by Aubrey Plaza. Never before have I bought a DVD so quickly! I haven’t watched this yet, but come on, what Christmas Movie is complete without a (dis)loyal family pet?

That’s it! Would you ever consider watching my stereotypical, predictable Christmas Movie? I would, and then I’d add it to my list of guilty pleasures. Can’t wait to see what everyone else comes up with!

Review: Life After Beth (2014)

I watched this film with no real idea what it was about and what to expect, I had read about it but forgot before I watched it.  So when it started I thought it was going to be a coming of age drama about and young guy trying to get over his girlfriend dying and his relationship with her parents.  I was so wrong.....

Zack Orfman (Dane Dehaan) is trying to deal with his Girlfriend Beth's (Aubrey Plaza) death but after her parents stop returning his calls he goes round only to find Beth alive and well.  But things aren't quite what they seem, Beth has been brought back to life and may not be the same as she was before she died.

The is without fail now my favourite zombie movie, I loved it.  The humour was great and Dane Dehaan did a great job at being the brooding teenager distraught over his dead girlfriend right through to being terrified she was going to eat him!  My only wish was that they used more Anna Kendrick, I love her awkward relationship with Zack and I felt like it could have been utilised a bit more.

Dehaan and Plaza had great chemistry, so much so that you almost wanted them together even though she might have eaten his brains.  It's very much dark humour throughout which is perfectly timed to make this just one step better than Warm Bodies.  It has the blood, gore and general grossness but the focus is on the relationships between the living and the dead people that keep popping up alive again and inevitably trying to eat them. 

Ridiculously awesome, could happily watch it again and again.  Love the plot, love the cast and really really love the dark humour.